Friday, September 28, 2012

House progress

We have made a lot of progress on the house this week! Monday they started framing. It’s nice to have walls up and be able to actually see how everything will look!

framing up 9-24-12

framing 9-24-12

By yesterday afternoon, they had the exterior walls blacked in! (And how gorgeous was the sky?)

blacked in 9-27-12

The roof trusses were also ready and waiting yesterday afternoon, so hopefully they will start installing them today!

trusses 9-27-12

Have a great weekend!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Lemon and garlic shrimp with chickpeas

If you know me in real life, you know that I do NOT cook. I have zero interest in standing over a pot and pouring 572 ingredients in at different times and then spending 2 hours cleaning it all up. No thank you. 

BUT I am trying to get away from eating so many Smart One’s and Lean Cuisine’s so I’ve been on the look out for easy and simple low calorie meals to make. I came across a blog called Eat Yourself Skinny on Pinterest and I fell in love! I got this recipe from her blog! Enjoy!

Lemon and Garlic Shrimp with Chickpeas

· 2 (15 oz) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

· 1 1/2 pounds shrimp, peeled with tails intact

· 2 Tbsp olive oil

· 3 Tbsp lemon juice (1 lemon)

· 3 cloves garlic, minced

· 1 tsp. grated lemon zest

· 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

· 1/2 cup parsley, chopped

· 1 1/2 tsp. salt

· 1 lemon, sliced

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Rinse and drain your chickpeas and toss with one tablespoon of olive oil and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Arrange chickpeas in a layer on the bottom of your baking dish and bake for about 20 minutes, until golden. 

Meanwhile, toss your shrimp, one tablespoon of olive oil, juice of one lemon, garlic, lemon zest, red pepper flakes and one teaspoon of salt in a large bowl.  Allow shrimp mixture to marinate for 10 to 15 minutes.

Once your chickpeas have finished baking, spread your shrimp mixture over the roasted chickpeas and place a few lemon slices over top.  Return your dish to the oven and bake for 5 to 8 minutes longer.  Shrimp should be pink in color.  Once done cooking, squeeze additional lemon juice over top and garnish with chopped parsley.  Enjoy!

It really was very tasty! I wasn’t sure that I would like the chickpeas, but they were awesome! I will definitely be making this again in the near future!

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I will say that her website says that one serving of the dish is 186 calories, but when I calculated using my ingredients, the calorie count came to 259 per serving. But that’s still super low and super healthy! I was stuffed after one serving!

Happy eating! :)

Monday, September 24, 2012

A fun, fabulous weekend

Friday night, we had a little family date! We had dinner at Full Moon BBQ, checked on the progress of the new house, and then we finished the night with some ice cream at DQ!

dinner with noah

The slab was poured Friday at the house. We were hoping the cement would be a little wet so we could write on it, but it was already completely dry!

9-21-12 slab

A few of our new neighbors came over when they saw us there to introduce themselves. Everyone was super nice and welcoming. We are going to love it there! We practically had to drag Noah, kicking and screaming back to the car. He has so much fun digging around in the dirt!

Saturday, we packed a few boxes and cleaned out our garage. I love being productive! We also spent some time enjoying the sunshine and playing in Noah’s fort.

playing in the sunshine

playing beauty shop

Saturday afternoon, we got to keep my niece, Reece, while her family went to the game! She and Noah played so hard! He loves playing with her and she loves Mommy-ing him! After Noah went to bed, Reece and I crawled in my bed and watched Reba while eating pretzels!

reece

Sunday, I never manage to take any pictures! :) We went to church, then out to eat with friends, then we took naps, went back to church and then came home and went to bed! Phew!

A fun, fabulous weekend!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

It’s like Christmas morning!

Are you tired of hearing about our new house yet?? Ha! I am enjoying being able to document it’s progress….just in case you didn’t realize that!

This morning at 7:00am, I met the guys at the lot to stake it off. My Dad is building the house, but he thinks I should be in on the action and ‘supervise’. So I put my closed-toed shoes on and frolicked in the mud with the boys!

shooting grades 9-19-12

staking off 9-19-12

And here is where we stand now. The footer has been dug out and the slab is set to be poured on Friday!

footer dug 9-19-12

Happy hump day!! :)

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

We have broken ground!

FINALLY! Yesterday we started making progress on our new house! The lot has been scraped off and is ready to be staked off. Now if the rain will just GO AWAY, we can resume building! Yippee!

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Friday, September 14, 2012

I’m going to be an aunt again!

Soooooo my sister April is pregnant!!!!!!!!!!! I am SO SO SO excited for a new baby to snuggle on!! After she told her kids and the rest of the family, I decided to tell Noah. April and Josh are not going to find out what they are having so everyone is working on their predictions. Noah has a sixth sense when it comes to predicting baby genders, so I couldn’t WAIT to see what he would say! Here you go:

I can’t wait to see if he’s right! :)

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Our weekend in Dallas!

Thursday, Brad and I headed west to Texas for the weekend for the Bama vs. Michigan game. We drove. Through the hurricane. For 10.5 hours! We will definitely be flying the next time we go that far away!

Before we left, I decided to go get a pedicure so my toes would be fit for game day! I told the pedicure lady that I wanted houndstooth on my big toes and she said she had never heard of houndstooth before. We live in TUSCALOOSA and the lady didn’t know what it was. For real. So once she finally figured out what I was talking about, she said she would do her best. Apparently her best is sucky.

Exhibit A:

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It’s laughable, really. But I’m pretty sure Noah could have done a better job! Luckily, a friend recommended Sally Hansen’s houndstooth fingernail sticker things and all was right with the world again!

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But enough about my feet. :)

Here are some pictures from our trip!

Driving up to our hotel. The Gaylord Texan is by far the best, fanciest hotel I’ve ever stayed at. It was HUGE and had 5 (I think?) restaurants in it, numerous shops, a water park, etc. There was plenty to do without ever having to leave the hotel!

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My sweet hubs on his 27th birthday!

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This was Saturday before we went geocaching. Don’t hate.

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I took this picture one morning as we were eating breakfast at one of the coffee shops inside the hotel. So pretty!

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My grandparents live close to where we were staying, so we got to meet up with them for dinner one night! This is our before-dinner picture!

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When we got bored, we just walked around the hotel at night. It was the perfect temperature in the atrium and there were little streams running throughout inside. So romantic!

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My game day attire! RTR!

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Walking through the hotel’s vineyard

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The Dallas Cowboy’s Stadium!! That thing is SO BIG!

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We had to walk about a mile in the 100 degree heat to get to the stadium, then stand in a line outside in the direct sunlight for about an hour before we could get in. I thought I was going to die. Or pass out, literally. The back of my hair was dripping with sweat. Gross. This picture was taken as soon as we walked inside the stadium.

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We walked around for the longest time trying to find a ponytail holder/rubberband/ANYTHING to get my wet hair off my neck! Luckily a vendor found a rubberband for me!

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Our view!

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We had so much fun and a nice baby-free few days to enjoy each other’s company. I missed my little man SO MUCH! He had so much fun with his cousins, though. He never wanted to talk to me on the phone for more than a minute! Stinker!